Pages

March 3, 2008

BP on Soriano, Papelbon

Leading off a player who's a threat to rap 100 extra-base hits in a season is crazy as it is, but it's certifiably insane in the NL. Not only does the pitcher make outs 85 percent of the time, but he's going to bunt a runner on first base over to scoring position as often as he can, negating the advantage of the extra-base hit over the single. Sure enough, last season, despite 33 homers, 42 doubles, and five triples, [Alfonso] Soriano finished the season with just 70 RBI. In major league history, no player with 75 or more extra-base hits has ever finished with so few:

Apparently the use of Soriano in the leadoff spot [he had a .337 OBP in 2007] has sparked some sort of trend; five of the ten guys on this list played in the last two years ...

After a little over two seasons in the majors, [Jonathan] Papelbon's career line is a thing of beauty: 160 2/3 innings, 103 hits, 45 walks, 193 strikeouts, and an ERA of 1.62. It's been a long time since someone with that many career innings could boast of having a career ERA that low. In fact, you have to go back to 1916, when Walter Johnson’s career ERA stood at 1.61. (Obviously there's a slight difference between these two pitchers; at the conclusion of that season, the Big Train's 1.61 ERA had been amassed in 3148 innings ...

Since Johnson retired, here are the lowest career ERAs at the end of a season for a pitcher with at least 150 career innings:

The Nomar as lead-off tactic of Jimy Williams was just as dumb---worse, maybe, because Jimy couldn't use the pat excuse that he was a base-stealer. Drove me nuts. But then a lot of things about Jimy Williams drove me nuts...his love affair with Midre Cummings, for example...